Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	soul_n	true_a	7,339	5	5.0618	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12625	An humble supplication to her Maiestie	Southwell, Robert, Saint, 1561?-1595.	1600 (1600)	STC 22949.5; ESTC S118938	34,797	92

that theyr ages were acquainted with yea what would your Maiesties Predicessors and Fathers with the Peeres people of your Realme thinke when they should see themselues in tearmes of felonie by the censure of your lawes for erecting Bishoprikes and endowing Churches founding Colledges and some other like places for the honoring and maintaining of Priests Religious men yea and for giuing theyr Ghostly Father in way of releefe but a cup of cold water though it were at the verie point of death when they needed spirituall comfort being to abandon their mortall bodies and though the Priests at that time were not made since the first yeare of your Maiesties raigne which is the onely point which excludeth them from the statute yet were they all such Priestes or Abbetors of them as were consecrated by authority deriued from the Sea of Rome as al registers doe record and present within your Maiesties realme which are the only materiall points for which we haue bin or can be cōdemned for the Sea of Rome remayning in the selfe-same state still indued with the same authoritie and neither the manner of our creation or Priest-hood it selfe is any thing altered from that it was Why should it be more treasonable to be made Priestes in the midsomer day of your first yeare thē the next day before or the last of Queene Maries Reigne for neyther doth the Pope nor any other Bishop by making vs Priests claime or get any more authority in our Realme then they of Basill or Geneua by making Protestants Ministers nor wee by receauing our orders frō him acknowledge in him a mite worthy of authoritie more then euery lay-mā doth through all Christendome as for othes promises in receauing Holy Orders we neyther take nor plight any but one common to the Priests of all Nations vvhich is a solemne vow of perpetuall Chastitie a thing rather pleasing then offensiue to a vertuous Queene who hath for her selfe made choise of a single life And who then can finde any cullourable pretence to verifie this slaunder more grieuous to vs then death it selfe that wee are not condemned and executed for Religion but for treason we being alwaies arraigned cast vpon this statute of comming into England being since the first of your Maiesties Raigne made Priests by the authority of the Sea of Rome for what can be meant by Religion if it be not a point yea and a chiefe point thereof to receaue a Sacrament of the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH as wee acknowledge Priesthood to be of the chiefe PASTOVR and PRELATE thereof from vvhence vvee can proue all lawfull Priest-hood to haue descended this fifteene hundred yeares to auouch vs Traitors for comming into England or remayning here is an iniurie without ground sith in this respect the statute could not touch vs setting priesthood aside many comming and going at theyr pleasure without such supposall of treason But it is our comming in as Priests that is so highly condemned therefore our Priesthood and nothing els punished by this law And howbeit the chiefe deuisers of this all the like decrees euer seeking to attayne their drifts against religion vnder some other pretence exempted the QVEENE MARIE Priestes from the compasse of this Statute by a limitation of time yet vvas that but a colour to inueagle such eies as either through carelesnesse woulde not loke or through weakenesse could not reach to their finall intentions and little regarded that a few old feble men whom neither age by course of nature or they by any other acts might sone cut off so the seed might be extinguished a new supply of posterity preuented which by this Lawe though in vaine they purposed to doe Be it therfore neuer so much mistitled with the vndeserued name of treasō the 〈◊〉 reproch cannot couer the truth frō your Maiesties best deseruing insight which by this cannot but apparantly see that it is it vvas and euer will be religion for which wee expose our blood to the hazard of these laws for the benefit of souls yeeld our bodies to all extremities It may be also easily gathered by the weakest wits what huge treasons they be for which we be condemned sith at all our araignements and deaths we are offred that once going to church shuld wipe away the heinousnes of this treason a curtesie neuer mētioned to true traitors a sufficient proofe it was a religious faulte that is so easily clered by a religious action yet we must with iust complaint of most vniust proceeding acknowledge that at the bar many things whereof not so much as our thoughts were euer guiltie are besides our Priesthood partly by inditement partly by some in office laid to our charge and yet so naked of proofs or of any likely coniectures that we can neuer be condemned of any thing but our owne confession of Priest-hood and hereof the last araignement of three Priestes at Westminster euen since the Proclamatiō gaue such an ample notice as the Lord chiefe Iustice said that though many thinges had bin vrged yet was hee to pronounce sentence of death against them only vpon the statute of comming into England being made Priests after the Romaine order since the first of her Maiesties raigne yet it hath bin some time obiected against Priestes that they should pretend to kil your sacred Maiesty a thing so contrary to their calling so far from their thoughts so wide of all pollicy that whosoeuer will afford reason her right cannot with reason thinke them so foolish to wish muchlesse to worke such a thing euery way odious no way beneficiall Wee come to shed our owne blood and not to seeke the effusion of others blood The weapons of our warrefare are Spirituall not offensiue and vvee carrie our desires so high lifted aboue sauage and brutish purposes that we rather hope to make our owne Martyrdome steppes to a glorious eternitie then our deathes our purchase of eternall dishonour And who but men vnwilling to haue vs thought owners of our right wittes vvould abuse your Maiesties authoritie to sooth vpp so great vnlikelie-hoodes sith none can be so ignorant how pernicious it vvere for PRIESTES CATHOLIKS to loose the protection of your Maiesties Highnesse and to forgoe present suerties for vncertaine chaunges For if any would bequeath his blood to so brutish a fact if hee were not as much enimy to all men as to him-selfe hee vvould at the least haue some apparance of benefite that might be supposed to ensewe to those for whose good hee vvould be thought to haue cast away his life but none that looketh but a steppe before him into future accidentes can thinke it any vvaie auaileable vnto vs to be bereaued of your Maiestie sith that our hopes are now bent not vppon anie ●●pected happinesse but onelie vppon a more intollerable miserie And although our cause at this present be so hard that it is the next degree to extremetie yet vvee see thinges hang

in so doubtfull tearmes that the death of your Maiestie vvould be an alarum●● to infinite vprores and likelier to breed all men to a generall calamitie then CATHOLIKES anie cause of comfort and therefore vs to seeke it were not onelie an impietie to our Countrie but a tyrranie to our selues vvho of all others vvere surest to finde the fiercest encounters of the popular peoples furie though vvee could as then no man possible can finde a priuie or secret harbour from the common stormes yet whome should vve look vpō that may promise vs any hope or comfort of bettering our fortunes sith the likeliest to succeede are further from our Religion then your Maiestie euer vvas and likelier to charge vs vvith a heauier hand then to lighten the burthen vvherevvith vvee are alreadie brused and both your Maiesties Sex inclined to pietie and the mildenesse of your owne disposition rather vvrested by others then proone of it selfe too angrie resolution maketh vs more vvilling to languish in this quartane of our lingring cumbers then to hazarde our selues to those extreame fittes that might happilie be caused by the heate of men more vvar-like and lesse pittying mindes for nowe our dispairefull estate is much like vnto a vveake and tender Castell beseeged vvith manie enimies and continually battered and beaten with shotte in vvhich though the aboade be amongst manie accounted most daungerous and distresseful yet without it there is nothing but certaine miseries rest you therefore assured most Gratious Soueraigne sith we are deuoted to so harde a destiny that we neither dare hope for any cause of contentment or ende of vnhappinesse we had rather trust to the softnesse of your mercifull hand and next to God to rest to the hight of your possibilities in your fauor and clemency than by any vnnaturall violen●● against Gods annointed to seeke the ruine of your Realme and drawe vpon our selues the extreamest of worldly harmes in this only we craue admittance of our 〈◊〉 requests that euill informers rob not our wordes of due beleefe nor drawe your wisedome to their friuolous feares wholly grounded in meere fictions and purposely deuised to our ignominie Nowe whereas he imposeth on some to haue saide that they woulde take part with the Armie of the Pope against our Realme it is a most vnlikely thing vnlesse it were proceeded out of some fraile toung by force of torture that was rather willing to say what they seemed to require than to abide the hel of their intolerable torments for such is nowe our forlorne estate that we are not onely prisoners at euery promoters pleasure and common steps for euerie one to tread vpon but mē so neglected by our Superiours and so left to the rage of pittiles persons that contrary to the course of all Christian lawes wee are by extreamest tormēts forced to 〈◊〉 our very thoughts It is not enough to confesse that wee are Priests for it is seldome denyed but wee must be vrged vpon the torture with other odious interogations farre from our knowledge much further from our action We are compelled to accuse those whome our conscience assureth to be innocent and to cause their ouerthrow by our confessions to whose souls we 〈◊〉 Pastors and they the fosterers of our bodies And if we doe not because without vntruthes and iniuries we cannot answere we are so vnmercifuly tormented that our deathes though as full of pangs as hanging drawing and vnbowelling vs quicke can make them are vnto vs rather remedies thē further reuenges more releasing then incresing our miseries Some are hanged by the handes eight or nine houres yea twelue houres together till not only their wits but euen their senses fayle them when the soule weary of so painefull an harbour is ready to depart then apply the cruell comforts reuiue vs only to martyr vs with more deaths for est soones they hang vs in the same maner trying our eares with such questions which either we cannot because we knowe not or without damning of our soules we may not 〈◊〉 some are whipped naked so long and with such excesse that our enimies vnwilling to giue constancy the right name said that no man without the helpe of the diuell coulde with such vndauntednesse suffer so much Some besides their tormentes haue beene forced to be continually bo●●ed clothed many weekes together pyned in their ●yet consumed with varmine and almost stifeled with stench and kept from sleepe till they were past the vse of reason and then examined vpon the aduantage when they coulde scarce giue an account of their owne names Some haue beene tortured in those partes that it is almost a torture to Christian eares to heare it let it then bee iudged what it was to Chaste and Modest men to indure it the shame beeing no lesse offensiue to their minde than the paine though most excessiue to their bodies diuerse haue beene throwne into vnsauorie and darke dungeons and brought so neere staruing that some for famine haue licked the verye moisture of the walles Some haue beene so farre consumed that they were hardly recouered of life What vnsufferable agonies we haue beene put vnto vpon the Racke it is not possible to expresse the feeling so farre exceedeth all speech Some with instruments haue beene rouled vp together like a balle and so crushed that the blood sprouted out at diuerse partes of their bodies To omitte diuerse other cruelties better knowne by their particular names to the Racke-Miasters and Executioners then to vs though too wel acquainted with the experience of their smartes It is not possible to keepe any reckoning of the ordinary punishments of BRIDEWELL nowe made the common Purgatorye of PRIESTES and CATHOLIKES as grinding in the Mille beeing beaten like slaues and other outragious vsages for to these we are most cruelly enforced at the discreation of such as beeing to all other despised vnderlings take their onely felicitie in laying their greedye commaundements shewing their authority vpon vs to whome euery warder Iaylor and Porter is an vnresisted Lord. Thus most excellēt Princes are we vsed yea thus are we vnhumanely abused for being Priestes of our forefathers faith and of purpose to wring out of vs some odious speeches which might serue at our arraignments for stales to the people to make them imagine greater matters than can be proued whereas neither euill meaning nor trueth but torture onely was guide to the toung that spake them within so hard conflictes of fleshe bloode with so bitter conuulsions is apte to vtter anie thing to abridge the sharpenesse and seuerity of the paine Such vndoubtedly were the wordes alleaged of taking part with the armie of the Popes against our Realme if they euer issued out of Priestes mouthes or else they were spoken by some vnskilfull Lay-man that knowing not howe to aunswere such captious questions and for reuerence of the chiefe Pastour of GODS Church not daring to say that he woulde not take part against him had